Butterflies of Saint Martin (and around)

Besides eating and eating, we visited The Butterfly Farm ( www.thebutterflyfarm.com ) for a couple hours. I love wandering gardens (weren't any) and this was the closest I could get. I was surprised I enjoyed it as much as I did! They had a large area enclosed with shade cloth and many of the same flowers we've got. Our plants are not as large or blooming yet since we haven't been in the house that long. The average butterfly lives around 3 weeks or something so they are constantly mating and laying eggs. With all the sprays and shit people dump in the air and on the ground the butterfly population has been substantially reduced and we appreciate this guys efforts to help keep them around! This Titan Moth was my favorite.

After that we did some more driving and stopped for lunch on the Dutch side. Jeff had the most amazing sandwich -I think it was brioche with some sort of melted soft cheese (brie maybe?), ham (good quality - not the patched together little gross squares) and topped with a different cheese before being heated up. We had amazing desserts - a three layer chocolate thing with a crust that had peanut flakes (crunchy) in the crust, a layer of some kind of dense cake, a mouse layer and a ganache. I had a 3 chocolate layered thing that was a little sweet for me (but we shared so it was alright). Yum. No crowds, no waiting, no company. It is a pretty little island - at least during the off season. Everything was comparatively clean and organized - even the rooftops seemed planned.

Puerto Rico could look here as a model of how to do tourism. PR has so much more to offer but has shitty food, garbage, and mistreated animals all over. Missed opportunities abound. These signs were on every road choice pointing the way to jewelers and restaurants and attractions (weren't many). Even the GPS that came free with the car had locations preprogramed in by name. Yup - make it easy and not frustrating for the visitors so they are happy!

We did a little hike we enjoyed. It wasn't like our jungle romps to get to caves but it was nice enough and worked off a dessert maybe!

All in all we had a wonderful time! This was an excellent food vacation!!! Do we recommend going here? It depends on what it costs and why you are going there. For us it was a perfect, less expensive-than-other-islands getaway with excellent food. For sports adventures there is more in Puerto Rico but trying to find out about or schedule things in PR is a nightmare and should be skipped. Where will we go next? We are looking toward another nearby island adventure/trip or vacation and don't do repeats. Any ideas?